Prayer

A singles' ward in a neighboring stake has small FHE groups for the ward members. Back in October, one of my friends invited me to come to her FHE group so that I could meet more people. I decided to come, and I made some new friends.

In April, the groups got changed up, so I started going to a new group, but I still kept in touch with people from the old group. Yesterday, I went back to the old group because the group leader for the new group is on vacation for the next few weeks, so FHE got canceled.

At the end of the meeting, the person giving the closing prayer asked if there was anything in particular that we would like for her to pray for. One guy said he needed help finding a job. I said that I needed help with my toe healing.

On Thursday, I was at the beach, and I stubbed my toe on a rock. On Friday, it was still hurting, so I went to the clinic, and the doctor told me it was broken. He taped my toe and gave me a walking boot and told me to wear it for 4-6 weeks.

During the closing prayer, the person giving the prayer prayed for my toe, and for my friend's job. I got a call from the radiologist this morning, and it turns out it was a false alarm. My toe isn't broken. It's just bruised. I should be good as new in about 2 weeks.

Now I just need to wait to hear that my friend found an awesome job.

The Parable of the Gazelle

I'm still here! I have lots of thoughts that I would love to get down on paper (well, pixels, anyway), but I've been swamped. Hopefully this weekend I'll have time to say stuff.

An interesting thing happened on Tuesday. One of my friends posted a parable on her Facebook page that I had never heard before. I filed it away in my brain as something interesting and worth thinking about. Then I rushed off to work for a big meeting. At the meeting, the presenter began his lecture with the exact same story. Message received!

Here's the story:

In Africa, a gazelle wakes up in the morning knowing that in order to avoid being eaten, it must outrun the fastest lion. A lion wakes up in the morning knowing that in order to avoid starvation, it must outrun the slowest gazelle. So, it doesn't matter whether you're a gazelle or a lion, when the sun comes up, you had better be running.

I'm not sure if I'm a lion or a gazelle, but I do know that I'm a bit tired of running. Fortunately, God has a promise for the weary:

Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall:But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.
Isaiah 40:30-31

The first thing that stands out to me is that it's okay to be tired. There's nothing wrong with me for feeling like life is just a bit too overwhelming right now. The next thing that stands out is that by waiting on the Lord (or as it says in other translations, having hope in the Lord), I can be strengthened. I still have to run, but I won't be weary while doing so.

Learning to Say No

In the church, we're taught to say yes to callings, to service opportunities, to meetings, etc. Women especially are socialized to be people-pleasers. We're expected to be "nice" and self-effacing. There's nothing wrong with serving, there's nothing wrong with callings, and there's nothing wrong with caring for those around us. However, yes is cheapened when there isn't a viable opportunity to say no.

I've spent the last several years of my life overextending myself. There are the things I have to do (like work, household tasks, etc.), the things I want to do (social life, school, church), and the things I'm expected to do. I've done the things I have to do because they need to get done, the things I want to do because I want to do them, and the things I'm expected to do out of a sense of responsibility or guilt.

Thoughts on the Word of Wisdom

Over at The Narrow Gate, C.J. has an interesting post about the Word of Wisdom. She asks, among other things, what people think of cooking with alcohol or serving alcohol to guests. I started to leave a comment, but my comment was longer than the original post, so I decided to bring it over here instead.

I don't cook with alcohol. My aunt is an alcoholic, and I saw the devastation it brought on her life and the lives of those around her. I decided when I was 5 years old, before I ever heard of the Word of Wisdom, that I would never touch the stuff. (There's enough evidence that there's some genetic component to alcoholism that I don't want to even chance it with cooking. Contrary to popular belief, it doesn't all cook out.) That said, I don't have an opinion on whether it would be a violation of the word of wisdom to cook with it. (I know members who do, and members who don't.) I can see good arguments either way. On the one hand, D&C 89:7 says "strong drinks are not for the belly," with the exception of homemade wine for use in the Sacrament. On the other hand, strong drink isn't defined. Does it refer to all alcohol, or only a specific type? I'm not sure; I've never needed to find out.

I also don't serve alcohol, for the same reasons that I don't cook with it. I don't think LDS hosts should feel expected to serve alcohol to guests. After all, if I go to the home of a Jewish friend, I don't expect to be served pork. I don't think it would be wrong to serve alcohol to non-LDS guests, however. I don't see the Word of Wisdom as a universal commandment (after all, Jesus drank wine). I see it, rather, as a community marker that God has commanded for His people in this dispensation. People who have not made those covenants aren't bound by the Word of Wisdom.

Thoughts?

A Busy Few Weeks

I'm still around, but school and work are keeping me busy, so I haven't been able to blog. Work has been filled with drama. A few of my co-workers got (well-deservedly) fired, and I've had to pick up a lot of the slack. (Happy overtime to me!) I don't much like my job, but in this economy, I'm quite grateful to have it.

School is going great. I'm taking contracts, torts, and writing and research. I've taken all of these classes before, so I wasn't expecting much. I've been pleasantly surprised, though. My professors are great, and I understand the material far better than I ever did before. My writing and research professor is specifically exemplary. He takes an otherwise dull class and makes it interesting because he is passionate about the subject. I've gotten good feedback on how I can improve my writing. Torts is fun, too. My professor likes to have skits for landmark cases, and I got to act out the part of Mrs. Palsgraf. I made a fool of myself, but it was a blast.

I finally found another roommate, and she moved in last week. We haven't seen much of each other because we keep separate schedules. The construction at my apartment complex is really getting annoying. Parking is a nightmare, and I had no living room windows all day on Monday. I had to shut my cat in the bathroom today because my bedroom window was being replaced and I didn't want her to jump out and fall 3 stories. So, now my cat is mad at me. She's pretty forgiving, though, so I'm expecting she'll get over it soon.

My random stomach nausea has gone away! It turns out that the ultrasound came back negative for gallbladder disease. I got sent to a specialist and he gave me medicine for acid reflux. The medicine made me even sicker, so I stopped taking it. I'm now taking mastic gum, and it's cured me. I've only had two bouts of nausea since then, and mint herbal tea has cured them. I've decided to canonize Bigelow because Mint Medley has performed many miracles. Here's to St. Bigelow!

I've got a few spiritual posts in the queue for when I have more time to devote to them. (Hopefully on Sunday.) Have a great week!

The Gall of Bitterness

For the past few months, I've had random nausea and stomach pain after eating. It didn't happen all the time, or even consistently with the same foods. Mostly it has been fatty foods, spicy foods, and onions. I finally decided to go to the doctor yesterday, and he thinks it's my gallbladder. I need to get an ultrasound to see if that's the problem, and if it is, I'll probably need surgery.

I'm extremely nervous about this. I was hoping it was something easy like an ulcer. (My mom had ulcers a few years ago, and she just took some medicine for a few months and recovered with no problems.) I've never had surgery before, unless you count getting my wisdom teeth removed. I'm still keeping my fingers crossed that whatever is wrong won't require surgery, and that I'll have it all taken care of before I start school again in 3 weeks.